None of the tech groups we canvassed is taking sides in Tuesday’s special election in Alabama between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore to fill the Senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions became attorney general. Neither CTA nor CEO Gary Shapiro is taking a “public position," he told us Wednesday. CTA’s political action committee also “isn’t supporting either candidate,” confirmed Tiffany Moore, CTA vice president-congressional affairs. NAB "has not taken a position or donated NABPAC money to either candidate," a spokesman said. The Information Technology Industry Council and CompTIA are staying neutral, their spokesmen said Thursday.

T-Mobile US said Wednesday its board authorized a stock repurchase program of up to $1.5 billion, through Dec. 31, 2018. “Since launching Un-carrier, T-Mobile has delivered unmatched growth and continues to take share in a rapidly changing and competitive wireless industry,” said CEO John Legere.

Policymakers should adopt a technologically neutral stance on blockchain innovation and ensure strong privacy protections, said a Software & Information Industry Association paper Wednesday. SIIA plans a Jan. 18 panel with the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.

USTelecom blasted Google and Amazon Tuesday, after reports Google is blocking access to YouTube on Amazon’s Echo Show device because Amazon refuses to carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home. “Broadband ISPs are committed to providing an open internet for their customers, including protections like no content blocking or throttling,” said USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter. “Seems like some of the biggest internet companies can’t say the same. Ironic, isn’t it?” The companies didn’t comment.

ProjX360 Management Software joined ProSource as a vendor member, said the buying group Tuesday. The company’s platform helps integrators manage a custom electronics project through proposals, product ordering, project completion and service, it said.

CEDIA will host its annual member meeting via webcast Dec. 12, 11 a.m.-noon EST. Chairperson Dennis Erskine, Treasurer Giles Sutton, CEO Tabatha O’Connor and Vice President-Emerging Technologies Dave Pedigo will discuss the organization’s 2016 audited financials and key initiatives for 2018.

The Entertainment Software Association's petition for extension of a waiver of FCC rules requiring advanced communication services (ACS) access by people with disabilities (see 1711010056) should be its last, disability advocacy groups said in docket 10-213 filings posted Friday, the deadline for replies. The National Federation of the Blind said the pattern of waiver extensions and delays in access to ACS features in videogames for people with disabilities "is a distressing trend" that hopefully ends with this last request. An array of groups support ESA on condition it be the final extension, to be followed by "large-scale compliance." Those groups said the FCC should make clear it will "skeptically" scrutinize claims that making ACS components of future videogames accessible isn't achievable. Signers include Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America, the American Foundation for the Blind, the American Council of the Blind, the National Association of State Agencies of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Networks. The Arc of the United States said in a filing posted Monday the petition is "problematic" in not showing usability and accessibility steps for people with cognitive disabilities, so approval should be conditioned on ESA submitting a progress report next year detailing steps members have taken to include people with cognitive disabilities in user research, product design and testing and online community curation. Arc said the report should cover insights ESA members generate about such needs and any changes the members make. The requested extension would go until Jan. 1, 2019.

Europe's cable ISP industry grew 4 percent to roughly $27.8 billion last year, IHS Markit and Cable Europe said Monday. They said the number of unique cable homes in the EU grew to 65.1 million, or 31 percent of total TV households, by the end of 2016. Internet revenue is 34 percent of Western European cable operator revenue, they said. Germany is the largest single market, with 18.6 million unique cable homes, with the three next-biggest -- the U.K., Poland and Romania -- each having just over 5 million unique subscribers, they said.

Cable is facing "increasing headwinds" in the form of more video competition, slowing broadband growth, their balance sheets and more-uncertain merger and acquisitions permutations, Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar wrote investors Monday, downgrading the cable and DBS industry to neutral, and Charter Communications to underweight. He said Charter faces high programming cost growth and wireless launch costs atop its reluctance to raise broadband prices. Charter didn't comment.

The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America filed a petition for reconsideration with the FCC over recent agency rule changes for RF device imports. The FCC's rule removed Form 740 filing requirements for RF device imports but retained compliance requirements and said customs brokers can be a "responsible party" for import compliance. "We urge the FCC to reconsider the rule to ensure that the responsible party is a person positioned to know important details about the product and its supply chain," the NCBFAA said. The NCBFAA previously noted its objections during the rulemaking process, but the FCC went forward with the regulations, including language seen by the association as onerous. "To the extent customs brokers are included in this rule, the responsibilities assigned to brokers should be reasonably proportionate to their function in the supply chain," the NCBFAA said.